Elm Creek

About the Book

Bill Sievers is mayor of a small town in Iowa called Elm Creek and is editor of the Elm Creek Ledger. He and a newly hired teacher, Lila Turner, find a purse during a morning jogging expedition. When the owner of the purse, Celia Harrigan, an elderly eccentric, turns up missing the mystery begins.

Drawn into the plot are many of Elm Creek’s residents. There is Marie Harrigan, Celia’s 87-year-old sister, who is carrying on a telephone romance with the beau of her youth, Carl Abrams.

There is Frank Reimer, aging police officer of Elm Creek, who fears the mayor wants him replaced with a younger version, and his wife Molly, who is seeking ways to get the Mayor to leave town.

There is Ed Barnett, a former resident who is visiting Elm Creek as head of a small proselytizing religious group from California. He has come with his six young male followers to bring “the love of Jesus” to his native town.

There is Inez Phipps, estranged grand niece of the Harrigan sisters, who would like to claim a part of the Harrigan fortune due to her husband’s hard times in the farm economy. She enlists the aid of a former lover and current Harrigan lawyer, Carter Sherman, in an attempt to get what she believes is rightfully hers.

There is Jennifer Phipps, daughter of Inez, who is attracted to the oldest member of Ed Barnett’s group and attempts to free him from its clutches.

A second murder in the little town further confuses the issue and brings to the surface many of the submerged hostilities, suspicions and frustrations of the affected residents.

About the Author

Doris Bingham was raised in Nebraska. She was section editor at the Globe-Times, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for fourteen years and was co-owner of the Dunlap Reporter in Iowa. She works today at the News-Times in York, Nebraska. She is author of a paperback original published in 1981 called "Lovers and Liars."